Health prior to conception, during pregnancy, and post-partum for both partners is critical. Body weight, nutrition, stress, exercise, and caffeine intake can affect each of these stages. For example, these factors may affect a woman and man's ability to contribute to conception, a woman's health during pregnancy, a man's ability to manage stress during pregnancy, and a woman and man's ability to manage post-partum stress and hormonal changes. Further, a similar set of factors can affect fetal wellbeing in utero and newborn health post-partum. Recent research has shown that the time from conception through the first two years of life will determine the health of a child, the ability to learn in school, and/or to perform in a future job (Thurow, Roger. 2006. “The First 1,000 Days.”).
Current systems for health monitoring focus on monitoring the mom or fetus during pregnancy. For example, available systems monitor maternal uterine activity, and/or maternal and fetal heart rate in the hospital. In some instances, these systems are particularly suited for pregnant females with a high body-mass index. Current systems for at home use measure maternal activity, maternal sleep, or maternal weight.
Pregnancy monitoring solutions targeted to the consumer focus on monitoring a few parameters, for instance maternal health, fetal kicks, or contractions. However, these systems fail to provide a comprehensive solution to all the needs of a woman during pregnancy. These systems fail to adapt to the changing needs of a soon-to-be mom as she is progressing through her pregnancy and parenting experience.
Further, current systems for newborn monitoring are dedicated to measuring newborn heart rate, respiration, or newborn oxygen saturation. However, these currently available systems for pregnancy or newborn monitoring fail to monitor wellbeing of both parents pre-conception, both parents and the fetus during pregnancy, and both parents and the newborn post-partum. Further, monitoring both parents and the baby during all of these stages would be expensive since several unique sensing systems and/or accessories would be required.